Murder Between the Pages by Linda Hope Lee

Title: Murder Between the Pages (Nina Foster Mystery Series #1)

Author: Linda Hope Lee

Published on: 19th December 2018

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Zelma Duke is in her hometown to promote her book. At the book signing, Nina Foster overhears a conversation between her two best friends – Zelma and Wildeen Bergman. Wildeen seems to be blackmailing Zelma about something.

The next day, Nina goes to meet Wildeen at her bookstore. Nina is a collector and Wildeen had promised her a rare copy of The Wizard of Oz. But Wildeen is nowhere to be seen and the bookstore is locked. As Nina enters the store through the backdoor, she finds Wildeen in a pool of blood.

Nina tells the cops that she heard Wildeen and Zelma argue about something and Zelma was supposed to meet Wildeen at the bookstore. Zelma, a wannabe and would-be bestseller of her romance novel, is now a murder suspect. Nina believes that Zelma is innocent and decides to sleuth around and find the murderer.

Murder Between the Pages was an easy read. With a couple of red herrings and twists, the reader is in for a surprise. Nina initially thinks that Zelma might have killed Wildeen. Then, she’s convinced that Zelma is innocent. She finds some incriminating evidence against Zelma and the cycle repeats!

There were too many things going on in the story. Josh, Wildeen’s soon-to-be-ex-husband and his arm-candy girlfriend and their relationship. Stephen, a local news reporter and his relationship with Nina. Zelma, her literary agent and her publicity agent and their personal lives. Nina’s grandmother and her life at the old age home. So many characters, so many stories! I liked how each of these tiny stories was incorporated in the mystery.

Nina is a librarian and an amateur sleuth. When Zelma asks her to investigate, everybody in the town knows that Nina is investigating the murder. When she directly asks them for their alibi (doesn’t beat around the bush and then gets them to talk), they initially seem angry. But then, they are eager to help her in solving the case.

The only thing that seemed a tad off in the story was the conversations. It seemed dull and too plain. Also, instead of expressing a character’s feelings through words, I felt like I was being told how they were feeling.

I liked the ending. The identity of the murderer was unexpected. With all the red herrings, I was really thinking that the murderer might be someone who was in the initial suspect list but I was in for a surprise. Overall it was a good read. The mystery kept me hooked onto the story.

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Giveaway details here.

Thank you, Lori Caswell, from Escape With Dollycas for giving me an opportunity to be a part of this blog tour.